May 22, 2010
Regional Notes:
Illinois advances to face Missouri Sunday at 1 p.m. DePaul was eliminated from the 2010 Columbia Regional.
Missouri defeated Illinois, 3-1, in Game Three of Saturday's regional.
Illinois Notes:
Illinois earned its second consecutive win over DePaul after entering this weekend's regional on a five-game slide vs. the Blue Demons.
Illinois also recorded its 45th win of the season, which ties the school record. The 2004 Fighting Illini went 45-21-1 and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 before falling to #3 LSU.
Illinois' nine runs are a new school record for NCAA Tournament play. The 13 hits broke the school NCAA Regional mark as well.
Illinois enjoyed the largest offensive explosion of this weekend's regional as it batted around and scored six runs on six hits in the fourth inning of Saturday night's win. Hope Howell launched the big blow in the inning with her seventh home run of the year. The three-run bomb pushed the Illini lead to 8-1. The blast also pushed Howell's RBI total to 41 this season.
Leadoff hitter Danielle Zymkowitz recorded her first home run of the season in the top of the seventh inning to push Illinois' lead to 9-1.
As you would expect, Illinois enjoyed a number of offensive exploits in Saturday night's win. Zymkowitz recorded her ninth three-hit game. Hope Howell had her third three-RBI game. Danielle Vaji had her seventh multi-hit game and sixth multi-RBI contest. Kelley Wedel's two hits marked her ninth two-hit game of 2010.
Monica Perry made her third consecutive start of the regional and improved to 2-1, with both wins coming vs. DePaul. She did have to pitch around a couple of unearned runs in the two victories. DePaul scored an unearned run in the third inning to cut the Illinois lead to 2-1 and used an unearned run to build an early 2-0 lead on Friday.
Perry allowed just one earned run in 11.0 innings of work vs. DePaul, while recording three strikeout's and one walk.
Perry recorded her 25th win of the year, setting a new career high. She now ranks No.2 in school single-season history with those 25 triumphs and her 49 career victories ranks #2 in the Illinois annals, tied with Claire DeVreese. Perry is just a sophomore. Amanda Fortune owns the school record with 80 wins from 2000-04.
Pepper Gay entered the game to finish off the final three innings in the circle for Illinois and threw three shut-out innings, while recording four strikeouts.
DePaul Notes:
DePaul finished the year with a 39-17 mark. The Blue Demons finished the year by winning 18 of their final 22 games.
Over the course of its illustrious history, DePaul is 39-31 all-time in NCAA play.
The Blue Demons did suffer their second worst postseason loss in school history. DePaul fell to Illinois-Chicago 10-0 in 1995 and lost 8-0 to Arizona in 2002.
Alex Morocco reached base six consecutive times this weekend before grounding out to lead off the bottom of the third inning of the game vs. Illinois. During her impressive offensive surge she reached base on three hits, two walks and an error in the first inning of the second contest with the Illini. Morocco was also intentionally walked in the ninth inning of the Blue Demon's win vs. Creighton.
Shae Warren scored her second run of the year in the defeat. She made just her second start of the season and recorded her third hit of 2010.